NBC News Takes a Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Making of Harry Potter World

Harry Potter fans are eagerly waiting the July 8 opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Diagon Alley in Orlando, and NBC News host Meredith Vieira earned every Potter geek's envy when she recently visited the theme park for a primetime special.

Harry Potter fans are eagerly waiting the July 8 opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Diagon Alley in Orlando, and NBC News host Meredith Vieira earned every Potter geek's envy when she recently visited the theme park for a primetime special.

During her visit, Vieira got to watch the filming of several interactive 3D scenes that were shot for the new park with the series's original cast members, and many of its original crew members as well.

"Young people will feel that they are actually in it, that they are part of the movie and in the story," Ralph Fiennes, who plays arch villain Voldemort, told Vieira. "The physical reality and visual reality around the movie…you can almost reach out and touch it. I think that'll be something they'll never forget."

In March, Warner Bros. announced that it would be producing another trilogy of Harry Potter films (in addition to the eight that have already been made from the original book series) that would focus on author J.K. Rowling's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them." Rowling published the book in 2001, between the fourth and fifth books in her bestselling series.

According to Rowling, the films will be "neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series but an extension of the wizarding world." Rowling herself is set to pen the screenplay for the film, and as we noted earlier, "Fantastic Beasts" will also be developed across Warner Bros. video game, consumer products and digital initiatives businesses.

Thompson on Hollywood

Born and raised in Manhattan, Anne Thompson grew up going to the Thalia and The New Yorker and wound up at grad Cinema Studies at NYU. She worked at United Artists and Film Comment before heading west as that magazine's west coast editor. She wrote for the LA Weekly, Sight and Sound, Empire, The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly before serving as West Coast Editor of Premiere. She wrote for The Washington Post, The London Observer, Wired, More, and Vanity Fair, and did staff stints at The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. She eventually took her blog Thompson on Hollywood to Indiewire. She taught film criticism at USC Critical Studies, and continues to host the fall semester of “Sneak Previews” for UCLA Extension.